An access point is a device that may be placed in a customer's residence or in a business environment, for example, and may provide WLAN or Wi-Fi service. An access point may be enabled to connect an endpoint device such as a computer or handheld wireless device to an intranet or an internet service provider (ISP) via a physical broadband connection which may be, for example, a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection and/or a cable connection. Access points may communicate in adherence to one or more 802.11 standards.
Similar to access points, femtocells may be placed in a customer's residence or in a small business environment as well. Femtocells may be utilized for off-loading macro radio network traffic, improving coverage locally in a cost-effective manner, and/or implementing home-zone services to increase revenue. Femtocells, like macro cell base stations, may be enabled to connect “standard” phones to a cellular provider's network by a physical broadband connection which may be a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection and/or a cable connection, for example. Since the traffic between a customer's premises femtocell equipment and the operator's network may be traversing a public network, the traffic may be prone to various risks.
Communication between femtocells and one or more cellular provider's networks enables operation in private and public areas. The capacity of a femtocell may be adequate to address a typical family use model supporting two to four simultaneous voice calls and/or data traffic, for example.
In some ways, the functionality and/or services provided by an access point may overlap with functionality and/or services provided by a femtocell. On the other hand access points and femtocells each have their advantages and disadvantages. Accordingly, coordination of coexistent access points and femtocells a LAN or enterprise network may present a number of challenges to network administrators.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.